Mahatma
Gandhi
written by Isabell A.
1. Introduction
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi – better known as Mahatma Gandhi – was the political and spiritual leader during the Indian independence movement which ended in 1945.
He was given the names of honour “Mahatma” - which means “great soul” - and Bapu (“father”) due to his achievements for Indian minorities in South Africa and the independence of India. Gandhi also was the founder of non-violent civil disobedience.
2. Early Life
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on October 2nd 1869 in Porbandar which is situated in the north west of India and of which his father was the prime minister. Gandhi had three older brothers. Very important for him was that his mother was very religious, which had a deep impact on him and his whole life –, as well as the traditions of the regions had. Because of this, Gandhi was taught the principles of compassion, vegetarianism, fasting and tolerance for different religions and creeds. He followed these principles through all his life and they were the headstone and very important for all his actions.
Also because of the traditions, he got married at the age of 13 to Kasturbai Markhanji, who was the same age as he was. At that time, arranged marriages were common in that region of India.
Two years later, their first child was born but it died after few days. Then, Kasturbai and Mahatma had four more sons.
Gandhi's parents were fairly ambitious – they wanted their son to become an attorney and they went into debt just to finance the studies, although Gandhi was not an extraordinary good student. This made him quite unhappy but, nevertheless, in 1888 he travelled to London to study law. There he joined the “Vegetarian Society”, which influenced his life in some way. Some of the members of the Vegetarian Society encouraged him to study both Moslem and Christian scriptures, which made him understand those two different religions better.
When returning to India in 1891 he attempted to become a high school teacher but he failed, so he worked as an attorney in India instead. In his job he had only sparse success, so in 1893 he was sent to South Africa.
3. Gandhi in South Africa
3.1 First experiences
Gandhi arrived in the Colony of Natal in South Africa in 1893 – an Indian business man wanted him to get a lawsuit solved. While working in South Africa, where an Indian minority lived, he was astonished to face discriminations by the British, like being thrown off a train, because he was travelling first instead of third, although he was holding a valid ticket. These early experiences with discrimination were very important for his background and had a big influence in his later social activism – they meant a turning point in his life
He began fighting for the rights of the Indian minority in South Africa by helping them opposing an act, which was to deny their right to vote. He already did this without using any violence. Although the act was passed, Gandhi achieved to draw attention to the situation of the Indians.
He also assisted to found the Natal Indian Congress in 1894. Because of this congress, the Indian society in South Africa became a political force. Gandhi began writing articles for newspapers in which he described the situation of the Indians living in Natal. Because of these scriptures, he was attacked by white settlers, but he refused to press charges against them. He later explained it was one if his principles not to seek compensation for something somebody did wrong.
While the second Boer war took place, Gandhi encouraged 1 100 Indians to support the British. Gandhi did this, because he wanted to improve the situation of the Indians in South Africa but in the end he had to assert that he had failed. Since Hindus where not allowed to kill people they provided only medical service.
In 1902 he returned to India for just one year. During this time, he wanted to get to know the circumstances of life of the poor people in India better, so he only travelled in the 3rd class. This style of travelling became legendary for him. He also visited a conference of the Indian National Congress, where he got to know many important Indian politicians.
In 1903 he got back to South Africa. There he negotiated the rights of Indians with the colonial minister – also without success. One year later he founded the “Phoenix-Farm” and the newspaper “Indian Opinion”, which was the mouthpiece of the Indian society in Africa.
The Phoenix-Farm was a small settlement where its inhabitants tried to keep their lives as modest as possible and to produce everything they need on their own.
Soon he had to return to Johannesburg, where he kept on living a spartan life.
3.2 Satyagraha – 1907-1910
In 1907 the “Registration Act” was signed which meant every Indian living in Natal had to be registered. There were also registration passes which were to be carried with you at all time.
Gandhi then organized an assembly, where about 3 000 Indians swore to ignore the obligation to register. This was the point, where the movement of Satyagraha formed. The word is Hindu and means “holding firmly to the truth”. The movement was – of course – non-violent and supposed to address the rationality and conscience of the opponent.
Because of Satyagraha and his refusal to register, Gandhi was imprisoned. While being in prison, he read an essay about civil disobedience written by Henry David Thoreau, which echoed Gandhi's philosophy. Many of his followers demonstrated in front of the prison and let themself get imprisoned to free Gandhi and as an act of protest.
Eventually, Gandhi made the compromise that the Registration Act would get abolished if all Indians agree to register. Due to this, nearly every Indian got himself registered but the Indian community was let down by the British – the Registration Act was not abolished.
Gandhi then was very disappointed, since he recognized that the British had not the same associations of honesty and sincereness as he had.
This was followed by thousands of Indians, who were led by Gandhi, burning their registration forms in 1908 to provoke a mass arrest. 250 Indians – including Gandhi himself – were imprisoned for two months and sentenced to compulsory labour.
One year later, in 1909, Gandhi travelled to London, where he met radical revolutionaries and rethought his philosophies.
In London he also wrote his book “Hind Swaraj”, which means “Indian Self Administration” - but “Swaraj” can also be understood as “freedom. In the book he criticized the British society and stated that a modest life was much more important than progress and growth.
He also wrote that the authority of the British could only be ended by non-cooperation.
This book also was sent to Leo Tolstoi, who had fairly influenced Gandhi in his early life and – after reading the book – sided Gandhi.
3.3 Life in Transvaal – 1910-1914
In 1910 Gandhi left London and returned to South Africa – but now he lived in the British colony Transvaal. There he got a piece of land allocated by the German Jewish Hermann Kallenbach. Together with his followers he built up a farm there, which he named “Tolstoi-Farm”, and where he went on living the same way as on the Phoenix-Farm.
In 1912 he swore to totally abstain from any private property. He never broke this vow – when he died his only belongings were his self-spun clothes, his glasses, a book and a pen.
One year later, a new marriage act was passed, which stated that only Christian marriages were officially valid. This meant children born to an Indian couple were bastardised. The effect of this new act was, that many Indian workers went into strikes and got imprisoned in return, while Gandhi and his followers again provoked a mass arrest as an act of protest. Gandhi also got imprisoned several times again.
In 1914 the “Indian Relief Act” was passed and improved the situation of the Indians in South Africa immensely, so Gandhi finally returned to India.
3.4 How the time in South Africa influenced Gandhi
All in all you can say that Gandhi's time in South Africa was very important for him and his further life. In South Africa it was the first time for him to be active in politics and there he had his first experiments with non-violent protests, which became characteristic for him in the later Indian independence movement.
In South Africa he also managed to fuse his traditional Indian roots with Western influences.
It was also very important, that he found a new definition for the job of an attorney for himself: He thought that the true capacity of an attorney was to unify two parties who were at odds with each other.
4. Back in India – Independence movement
When Gandhi returned to India in 1915 – after he had made a detour to London – he began building up his Ashram, which was a farm where he, his wife and some of his followers lived a life similar like they had in South Africa on the Phoenix-Farm. There he created to some point his own world of self-discipline and self-reforming, which was not indisputable because of some sanitary “experiments” like leaving children to death instead of bringing them to the hospital nearby.
He also had the feeling of not really knowing the people of India and their circumstances of life so he decided to again travel through the whole country by train – of course in the 3rd class!
In 1918 – he had already gained honour and the name “Mahatma” (although he found it fairly embarrassing) because of other political activities – he led a satyagraha of farmers who wanted to protest against taxes by refusing to pay them.
In this time he already was supported by Vallabhbhai Patel, who was very important for him and the vice president of India from 1947-1950.
In 1920 Gandhi became the head of the Indian National Congress, which became the most important institution during India's struggles for independence and transformed into a mass organization.
Gandhi's main goal now was to achieve the Indian independence. His plan was to make the British leave the Indian subcontinent by establishing the concept of non-cooperation. This meant that all Indians were supposed to refuse to work for the British without violence – like simply not delivering the mail, fro example. He had success with this to some extend, but this satyagraha movement ended up in a massacre, since some farmers felt threatened by the police. But all in all Gandhi mainly stayed out of the politics during the 1920s.
Then, in 1930, he initiated the campaign of “civil disobedience” and the “Salt March”. The Salt March was against the British Salt Monopoly and was 400 kilometres long.
It resulted from the fact that Indians were not allowed to produce or sell salt. There were also very high taxes on salt, which meant that it was hardly affordable for a part of the Indians.
Gandhi and his followers started marching from the Ashram to Dandi, which is situated on the north-west coast of India. When arriving in Dandi, they started producing their own salt – also as an symbolic act of independence and disobedience.
The Salt March was Gandhi's most spectacular action for India's independence. In the aftermath thousands of Gandhi's followers were imprisoned, which highly increased the success of this event.
Another important event – while Gandhi and many of the congress members were still in prison – was the march to the salt works in Dharsana, where the peaceful satyagrahis – how Gandhi's followers are also called – were beaten down (two of them to death) by policemen.
The vice king of Britain, Lord Irwin, wanted to open the dialogue between India and Britain again so he set Gandhi and the congress members free . Irwin and Gandhi met several times and they agreed on the compromise that Indians would be allowed to produce small amounts of salt if Gandhi ended his campaign of civil-disobedience. Many of the Indians were disappointed with this result.
In 1931 Gandhi travelled to London to take part in the “Round Table” – a conference also concerning the independence of India. But this conference ended without coming to a real result which would have changed the circumstances in India, so Gandhi was fairly disappointed.
Shortly after his return from England, Gandhi was again imprisoned – this time for a duration of 15 months. While he was in prison, Britain decided that not only the Muslims vote separately, but also Hindus and the untouchables. Gandhi protested against this by starting to fast – also accepting his possible death. This put a huge pressure on the British government and finally a pact announced, which can be understood as a clear denial towards the fact, that some people a declared as “untouchables” and which ended Gandhi's fasting.
In the elections in 1937 the Indian National Congress got 70% of the votes which surprised the British and also the Indians. Before, Muhammed Ali Jinnah had taken the lead of the Muslim League. His politics stood in a big contrast compared to Gandhi's and he used the fear of the Muslim Indians, that the Hindus would become the major power in India, if it became independent. He also demanded for India's independence, but wanted an own Muslim state, which he called “Pakistan” the first time in 1940, because of the fear of not having an influence on politics – the Indian National Congress had already shown some unwillingness to share there power, once India is independent.
Gandhi however never wanted a parted India – in his opinion, all people of all religions and creeds should be able to live in one state peaceful together.
In 1942 the Indian National Congress started a new campaign under the motto “Quit India” - Jinnah declared this step as an “open rebellion”. This declaration got about 60 000 congress members – including Gandhi – into prison.
During his imprisonment, Gandhi's wife Kasturbai died, which was a huge setback for him. Two months later – in May 1944 – Gandhi was released from prison because of health problems.
On June 3rd 1947 – finally – India received its independence. The British prime minister also announced the Partition into Pakistan and India, although Gandhi never wanted the Partition.
After the Partition riots started because of the conflicts resulting out of it. Because of Gandhi again nearly fasting to death, these riots where – at first – short-lived.
5. Gandhi's principles
During his life, Gandhi developed six principles – their roots are to be found in his early life, the traditions of his family and his religion.
5.1 Truth
Gandhi dedicated his whole life to discover the truth. His autobiography also is called “The Story of my Experiments with Truth”. He wanted to achieve this by learning from his own mistakes. A famous quote of him is “God is Truth”, which he later changed into “Truth is God.”
5.2 Non-violence
The concept of non-violence has a long history in the Indian religious thought. An interesting quote of Gandhi concerning non-violence is: “ There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall – think of it, always.”
5.3 Vegetarianism
The principle of Vegetarianism is deeply rooted in the Hindu traditions, which means that Gandhi's whole family lived vegetarian. Gandhi stated, that the needs of the body could be as well satisfied by a vegetarian diet and that Vegetarianism also had an economic purpose since meat was more expansive than vegetarian food you could produce on your own.
Gandhi also used fasting as a way of political protest.
5.4 Brahmacharya
The principle of Brahmacharya means on the one hand living celibate and also spiritual and practical purity. Gandhi decided to follow this principle at the age of 36 while still being married – Kasturbai was more a very good and close friend to him and that they were an inconvenient couple.
For him living celibate was something like coming closer to god and also a foundation of self-realization.
5.5 Simplicity
For Gandhi it was very important to live a very simple live, like he did in his Ashram and in South Africa on the Phoenix-Farm. He also said that there was one day in the week on which he wouldn't speak just to find inner peace.
Another sign for his simplicity was that he only wore very simple clothes of the poor people in India, which he spun himself.
5.6 Faith
Gandhi was a devout Hindu all his life but he also studied and got to know other religions very well. Once he said: “Hinduism as I know it entirely satisfies my soul, fills my whole being.”
All in all his faith was very formative for his whole life.
5.7 Gandhism
Today there still are people who follow these principles – this is called “Gandhism”. Their life is also centred around discovering truth and they all live a very simple life. The discovery of truth is described as a personal journey on which it is necessary to undergo personal challenges, travails and the testing of one's spirit. They also follow Gandhi's imaginations of economy – he had a vision of a very agrarian formed economy.
6. Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi
Since the 1930s there were five unsuccessful attempts to assassinate Gandhi until he was shot down on January 30th 1948 by Nathuram Godse, while he was having a public night walk in Delhi. All earlier attempts were led by the later assassin and always had a political background, mostly concerning the conflict between the Muslim and Hindu India. Many people believe that his last words were “Hai Ram [Oh God]” but this appears to be a myth.
Gandhi then was burnt – his ashes are know to be found at a memorial in Pune, India.
6.1 The Assassin Nathuram Godse
Nathuram Godse, the assassin of Mahatma Gandhi, was a Hindu nationalist. He was born May 19th and sentenced to death because of the murder of Gandhi on November 15th 1949.
Because his parents were fearing a curse, which targeted all their male children – all of Nathuram's brothers had died –, he was brought up as a girl until he got a younger brother.
During his early life, Gandhi was a kind of idol for him. After he dropped out of school he became an activist in the “Hindu Mahasabha”, a nationalistic Hindu organization. This organization also first supported Gandhi and his campaigns of civil-disobedience and non-violence.
Godse is said to be a “learned man, very sharp and intelligent” – but also a fanatic. But as recently some court statements and letters which had been suppressed by the Indian Government before were made public, there was a different picture drawn of the assassin – that he wasn't a fanatic but calm and had a “collected mental disposition”.
6.2 Reasons for the Assassination
However, after some time, the Hindu Mahasabha turned more radical, because they thought, Gandhi was sacrificing their interests while pleasing the Muslims. They also blamed him for the Partition and the conflicts and riots it caused.
The fact that Godse made no attempt to flee after he had shot Gandhi, showed that he didn't assassinate the “Mahatma” for personal reasons – also because he was aware of being hanged afterwards. It is also to be read that Godse despised Gandhi as a person but his policies.
Shortly before the assassination, there was a conflict about payments supposedly transferred from India to Pakistan. First, the Indian Government didn't agree in that demand, but when Gandhi started fasting unto death, they acquiesced the payment. On the same day Nathuram Godse decided to kill Gandhi.
Godse stated he didn't refute Gandhi's campaign of non-violence, but he thought Gandhi wasn't a good politician. In his opinion, the principle of non-violence denied self-interests and self-defence.
Godse also didn't agree on the Partition of India. He thought that the Muslim minority was too small and that most of the Hindu population didn't want two separate states.
The division had been an “unnecessary decision”. Although it is stated in many biographies written about Mahatma Gandhi that he wasn't happy with the Partition at all, Godse blamed him for it. One could say – while reading a statement written by him – that he was some kind of jealous and disappointed, because Gandhi cared about Pakistan (“The Father of our Nation went to perform his paternal duties for Pakistan!“) – Godse couldn't understand why the whole India which fought in unison for its independence had now to be divided.
He saw Gandhi fasting for making the government pay for Pakistan as a kind of blackmail, because there were still so many people who supported Gandhi and than feared for his life, which put the government under high pressure.
He comes to the conclusion that this fasting itself would cause the “destruction” of the nation.
6.3 Impact on the life today
One of the most evident effects Gandhi still has on the Indians' life is, that his birthday – October 2nd – is a national holiday in India. In 2007 this day has also been declared as the “International Day of Non-Violence” and on his day of death, many schools observe the “School Day of Non-Violence and Peace”. Also many streets and places in India are named after him.
However, many Indians mourned Gandhi's death, but nobody really followed his principles and way of living. For example, in 1950 there was an act passed which abolished the status of being untouchable, but it wasn't achieved in reality. These structures are very old and grew with the tradition of India. He also wanted the abolition of the Indian National Congress once India was independent and the congress wasn't needed any more, but also this didn't happen.
In addition, the principle of non-violence hasn't been maintained since India possesses nuclear weapons.
Nevertheless, Gandhi had an influence on important leaders and politicians in the past and today. For example Martin Luther King started his own Satyagraha, when he fought against the discrimination of the African Americans in the US. The African Americans also used non-violent protests and civil-disobedience in order to improve their situation.
Martin Luther King once said, “Christ gave us the goals and Gandhi the tactics.”
The difference between Gandhi and Martin Luther King was that King differentiated between his political and private life – he didn't follow any other principles of Gandhi.
Also the current US president Barack Obama is influenced by Mahatma Gandhi. On a speech in September 2009 he stated that his biggest inspiration came from Gandhi. "He [Gandhi] is somebody I find a lot of inspiration in. He inspired Dr. King with his message of non-violence. He ended up doing so much and changed the world just by the power of his ethics.”
7. Conclusion
After working on the topic of Mahatma Gandhi for a few months now, I think I know enough about this man to form my own opinion on him. During my preparation for the Gandhi-presentation and the work for this term paper I really read a lot about him which makes it partly hard to judge him.
In my opinion, Gandhi was to the core a good natured man who only wanted the best for his nation. In all his actions he seems so unselfish, just being eager to establish equality (political and social) in both South Africa and India.
It seems to me that he had some kind of “dream world” in his mind, where his principles would work – not only for a few decades but for all people and all times. Apparently, his ideals are – to some extend – utopian, because some of them go against the nature of the human being, like the bramacharya: If everyone followed this principle, there wouldn't be any humans left after about 100 years.
I also think, that it lies in our nature to sometimes be aggressive and to fight against each other. Of course, I am not a supporter of violence – but in my opinion it is just natural for us to always be in some kind of competition with the others out of which sometimes at least an argument develops.
The main problem for Gandhi was that he was at least a little naïve, because he thought the world out of his imagination could exist in reality. His assassination and the time after his death, in which he, however, had left a deep dent in the peoples' minds, but didn't change that much in the Indian society, showed that the people were immensely impressed but felt no urge to change anything without a charismatic leader – which Gandhi definitely was – guiding them.
What really made me think, was the critique by Nathuram Godse, the assassin. In general, Mahatma Gandhi is said to be some kind of saint, while Godse has a completely different opinion which is in contrast to the Gandhi-admirers. When I was reading Godses statement concerning the assassination of Gandhi and the whole India-Pakistan conflict, it was quite hard for me to make out if Nathuram Godse is right in his assumption that Gandhi, for example, sacrificed Hindus interests and if yes, to what extend.
At one point Godse states that the principle of non-violence denies self-interest and self-defence. When I first read this, I agreed with, but after thinking longer about this I do not share his opinion in this point. Gandhi used non-violent protests to defend himself and the Indian minority from discrimination in South Africa and to draw attention at the situation and in the long run to get his goals. Maybe on first sight, it seems that Godse is to some extend right in his assumption that one cannot realise his personal interests but in this case, I think, Gandhi is such an unselfish person that espousing the interests of the Indian minority and the Indians living under British rule were at the same time his own interests.
Especially in the 1940s, when the India-Pakistan conflict came up, Mahatma Gandhi did not have an easy task which resulted in the status that he was having two contrary positions: On the one hand, he did not want the Partition, but on the other hand, he wanted to come to an agreement with Jinnah and the Muslims. Because of this he became a likely goal for criticism from both Hindu and Muslim sides. I also would not have been able to make an other decision than trying to find a compromise between both parties if I have been in Gandhi's position.
In one point, I think, Godse is right when he says Gandhi has been blackmailing the government by fasting unto death. In my opinion, it is not fair to threaten his followers with his death. It also shows some kind of helplessness when he sees no other option but to fast. This is also something what puts – in this case – the government of India under high pressure, which means that they cannot think their decisions through before making them. Their first goal was – when Gandhi started fasting and getting weaker and weaker – to keep him alive. Usually, their first goal should be to be reasonable and to come to the best decisions for the country. As Godse says – and I have to agree with that in this case, although it sounds fairly harsh –, an individual should never be greater than a whole nation.
But despite this criticism one has to say that Gandhi was a great man who really achieved a lot for his people and his nation. He is exemplary for his way of making politics, protesting, even travelling – he is exemplary for his whole way of living. He might have made mistakes, but this comes naturally in one's life. I also think that there is no “master-solution” for political or social conflicts in the world – many roads lead to Rome and every road of these has one or another flaw in it.
In my opinion Mahatma Gandhi's imagination of how the world should be – peaceful and non-violent, all people being able to live together – just is not suitable for our world, where the most people are much too selfish and do not have enough self-discipline to live a life as Gandhi lived.
To sum up, I have to say that Gandhi is a very interesting person, who was very important not only for India's independence but also for the whole world as he showed us his special way of dealing with political and social problems.
The work on this term paper had been very interesting, because I now really have the feeling of knowing, what led Gandhi to his decisions and actions.
